Inaugural: DirecTV Provides Eight-Way Obama Coverage

DirecTV allowed its subscribers to become their own TV producers on Jan. 20 when the DBS firm provided eight various HD camera angles to view President Barack Obama's inauguration coverage.

The eight views were displayed on one master screen (DirecTV dubs it its “interactive Mix Channel”) for seven hours, starting Tuesday at 10 a.m. (EST).

Viewers click on the desired screen-view with the DirecTV remote to call up the specific camera angle (and, of course, if your screen is big enough, you could have simply viewed the event via all eight screens simultaneously).

The Inauguration’s HD Mix Channel also was available in SD.

Inauguration Day wasn’t the first time DirecTV deployed its Mix Channel for coverage of events. It already used the multi-screen scheme for some sports coverage (notably Wimbledon tennis last summer) and for a handful of other news events.

At currently more than 130 channels, DirecTV said it’s providing the most HD channels available in the U.S.